If you haven’t noticed, it’s been a little hard lately for me to keep up with posting. What gives, you ask? Well, basically, life. A lot has happened since we last got together. Most recently, we adopted another stray. Now, we never actually choose the stray cats – they choose us – and in this case, we didn’t really get to choose the timing. We were following our plan of relentless incrementalism – getting to know him and having him get to know us. We were doing casual outdoor meet and greets with Meadow, albeit with 20 feet of distance between them. Everything was going swell. We had an October timeline and it was August. Then, Mr. Oliver Twist (or Twister as he’s become known) showed up with one eye swollen shut and no obvious injury. He was also breathing a little raggedly. Relentless incrementalism went out the window. A few good snacks, a well-timed final push into the kitty carrier and Twister was off to the vet. He came home with an antibiotic and an antiviral and a simple charge: stay indoors for the next 10 days until he can go back to the vet and get immunizations.
So, Twister has taken up lodging in my office complete with kitty window seat, a scratching post, a ball game, several other toys, two beds, the same carrier from which he returned from the vet, food bowls, water and a litter box. In his first real sign of domestication, he used the litterbox with no messes in the house.
Meanwhile, across town (or, actually just downstairs) Meadow is blissfully unaware of what’s lurking in Momma’s office. She may even be a little relieved that “stinky boy” Twister isn’t invading her outdoor space anymore. We have yet to break the news to her.
Eventually, we need to get back to our relentless incrementalism. She needs to smell something of his, he needs to smell something of hers. They need to explore the other cats’ space without the other cat in it. At some point, we’ll move on to everyone getting a treat within eyeshot of each other but with a screen between them. Then, the screen comes down and the cats will – at last – intermingle. How long will that take, you ask? We don’t know, is the simple answer. We’re taking it step by step. First, vaccines and a clean bill of health for everyone. Then, they can share their scents. And ain’t nobody in this house got any ideas about when the screen can be pulled away and the cats can mingle. Candidly, the humans will not be deciding that question.
But, in a way, the relentless incrementalism needed to introduce a new cat to the household is a lot of the way we approach life. We have a house that needs renovated and yet, it all can’t be done at the same time. So, we choose priorities and do those. For my sake, we take a break in-between because I can’t handle being torn up for very long. We plant a garden and wait patiently for it to grow, harvesting a little here and there until the floodgates open. I watch from the beginning of March until spring really blooms. It’s all a form of relentless incrementalism. Even my career. For the longest time, it was move forward, move forward, move forward. Then, it became step back and soon, step back again. Each time, just incremental changes.
For all that incrementalism has a bad connotation, it actually allows for some really good outcomes. In general, very few people can handle making wholesale changes to their lives. Instead, step after step in the right direction makes the most sense. Just like you need to finish the drywall before you install the fixtures, it’s easy to build a life on a gradual achievement of one’s goal.
And the relentless part speaks for itself. Again, it has a negative connotation particularly when it’s my cat deciding that she’d like to go out in a rainstorm and I won’t open the door. But the idea that we keep moving forward at each opportunity is a good way to live life. When we need a break, we take it. When we’re ready, we lurch forward again.
As I once again try to get back on track with my blog and with the rest of my life that has been a little taken over by kitty care, I think about relentless incrementalism. About not trying to make up for all of the lost time that has happened this week but instead making – again – slow and steady progress to the future. It’s a way for me to manage change and my own level of fatigue.
Relentless for sure. Incremental? Absolutely. It’s the only way to go.
The Yuppie Homesteader 